Sonic Boom is an American-FrenchCGI-animated television series developed by Sega of America in collaboration with OuiDo! Productions, based on the Sonic the Hedgehog video game franchise created by Sega. Sonic Boom is the fifth animated television series based on the Sonic franchise, the second developed by SEGA following Sonic X (plus the second series co-produced in France following Sonic Underground) and the first television series in the franchise to be produced in computer-generated animation and in high definition.

The series is aimed at children, and centers around Sonic and his friends Tails, Amy, Knuckles and Sticks, and their never ending search for adventure and their battles with their arch nemesis Doctor Eggman. Other characters, both new and old, also join the ensemble.[12]

Contents

Production

The Sonic Boom animated series was first announced in October 2013, revealing a teaser image featuring the show's four main protagonists, Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles, in silhouette form.[12] The series, which will consist of 52 eleven-minute episodes with 11 minutes of running time each, is co-produced by Sega of America Inc. and OuiDo! Productions and is being developed by Evan Baily, Donna Friedman Mier, and Sandrine Nguyen, with Baily and Bill Freiberger as showrunners, under the supervision of Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka to ensure that it's true to the Sonic characters and universe.[12]Mike Banker will also assist with writing the television series.[13][14] Episodes are now under production.[13] On 6 February 2014, Sega revealed the first trailer for the series,[15] showcasing the new designs for the characters.[16][17]

Many of the current voice actors for the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series will return to voice the characters of the series,[18] including Roger Craig Smith as Sonic, Travis Willingham as Knuckles, Cindy Robinson as Amy, and Mike Pollock as Dr. Eggman, while voice actress Colleen Villard will be succeeding Kate Higgins in the role of Tails.[17][19] The series will also introduce a new character named Sticks the Badger, a crazy and paranoid hunter who has been living alone in the wilderness for many years before meeting Sonic and his friends,[20] who is voiced by Nika Futterman. In an interview with Polygon, Iizuka stated the series came about as a desire to appeal more to Western territories, following the 2003 Japanese anime series Sonic X, with Iizuka also stating that the franchise will run in parallel with the 'Modern' series of Sonic the Hedgehog games.[21] Baily has stated the series will be a mixture of action and comedy, featuring an episodic structure.[22] On 4 October 2014, Sega announced the air date of the series in the United States to be 8 November 2014.[10]

On February 19, 2015, Cartoon Network announced in a press statement that Sonic Boom, along with 10 other shows, will return for the 2015-2016 TV season.[23] This was subsequently confirmed by executive producer Bill Freiberger in a fan commentary to not be an indicator of a renewal or second season at this time.[24]

Cast and characters

The cast for Sonic Boom was confirmed by Sega on 25 February 2014. Jack Fletcher works as the voice director.

It is set in a wide-open world, where most of the characters live in and around a Village. This vast landscape is filled with jungles, mountains, undersea civilizations, cloud cities and all kinds of other environments.

It is the longest time to wait for a new show in the series - eight years passed from the original airing of the last episode of Sonic X (2003-2006) to air the first episode of Sonic Boom.

The screenshot of Nibroc-Rock's render.

On the official Cartoon Network website, a fan-made Sonic Boom render, made by Nibroc-Rock, was used alongside the official art of Tails. This may be intentional or just simply mistaken to be official.

Nibroc-Rock himself is aware of this and was "freaked out" (stated by himself with a picture)

The voices of the Sonic Team in the Portuguese Brazilian dub are the same as the voices of Sonic X.

According to Bill Freiberger, the developers do not ever use characters from non-Sonic Boom versions of Sonic, meaning no Archie Comics characters, no characters from the other TV series in any Sonic-related media and no characters from the other games.[30] However the characters Orbot and Cubot, who premiered in Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors respectively, appear in the series with little-to-no changes in design or personality (though their voices sound "human" rather than robotic).